Sea Battle (3)

If it weren't during combat, even if this patch malfunctioned and seawater flooded in, it wouldn't have caused a major problem. At that time, the ship's damage control personnel were monitoring this area 24/7. If a problem occurred there, everyone would immediately take action, closing the watertight compartments. The ship might experience some minor issues due to water entering one compartment, but it would never lead to a major disaster.

However, the situation had changed at this point. Multiple fires had broken out on the Queen Elizabeth, requiring damage control personnel everywhere. The constant shelling had also resulted in heavy losses for the damage control personnel themselves. Therefore, when seawater rushed in, the damage control personnel were unable to react immediately. By the time they discovered the problem, the flooding was already substantial. Although they urgently closed some compartments (in the process, some sailors who couldn't escape were trapped inside; these closed compartments would soon fill with seawater, and the trapped sailors would face certain death), the massive flooding still caused the Queen Elizabeth to begin listing noticeably.

If the list angle exceeded a certain level, the guns on Queen Elizabeth, especially the 10-inch main guns, would become unusable. Therefore, the Britain had to take measures to correct the list of the deck.

Generally speaking, the most common and quickest way to correct deck listing is to flood the corresponding watertight compartments on the other side with water to restore balance.

The Britain did the same, so the deck of the Queen Elizabeth gradually returned to level, and the ship's 5-inch secondary guns resumed firing at the France armored cruisers.

Compared to France armored cruisers, the Queen Elizabeth was a much more stable platform, so its secondary guns were naturally more accurate. However, even its secondary guns were significantly slower than the France main guns, making them completely inadequate to suppress the France armored cruisers.

On the other hand, due to the effects of passive flooding and active flooding to restore balance, the speed of Queen Elizabeth has further decreased. Her speed has now dropped to around eight knots. However, she has closed the gap with Imperator.

"How far are the enemy ships from us now?" Ignoring the approaching flames, General Nelson asked very calmly.

"About 1,700 meters," a staff officer replied.

"Get a little closer, to 1,500 meters, and then have the main guns fire at the enemy ship," Nelson said calmly, as if his warship were not engulfed in flames.

The two sides continued to close the distance, and more 150mm shells rained down on the Queen Elizabeth. Now that the distance was much closer, the enemy's shelling efficiency had clearly increased.

Fortunately, the Queen Elizabeth's ammunition magazines were specially reinforced with armor, and so far, no magazines had been breached. But at this moment, the France second squadron had also attacked from behind. Led by two super cruisers, they were firing on the Britain armored cruisers from behind.

Because of a clear disadvantage in both numbers and firepower, most of the Britain cruisers were suppressed, even though they were fulfilling their duty to England as General Nelson had demanded when raising the Z flag. However, the vast disparity in strength could not be overcome by morale alone. Although they did damage a few France warships, the France had clearly achieved greater success—almost all of the Britain armored cruisers were burning fiercely under France fire.

This result is quite normal. In fact, if you simply convert the numbers and firepower of both sides into the combat equations of a certain mountain stronghold, you will know that the Britain actually performed very well in this battle.

After being bombarded several more times, the Queen Elizabeth finally closed to within about 1,500 meters of the Imperator.

At that moment, a 150mm shell had just pierced the bridge of the Queen Elizabeth. The shell passed through without exploding, but it still caused considerable casualties. Nelson's adjutant was hit by a piece of metal torn from the shell and had already fallen to the ground unconscious; Nelson was also hit in the chest by a piece of flying glass. His lungs may have been injured, and blood was flowing from his mouth and nose, but he was still able to stand by holding onto the handrail.

"Forward main guns, prepare! Aim at enemy ship number one, fire..." Nelson shouted into the microphone, but at the end, he coughed violently, and foamy blood gushed from his mouth and nose.

"Fire!" Captain Hardy, who was also seriously injured, got up from the ground and shouted the order.

The forward main guns opened fire on the battleship Imperator, which was only a little over a thousand meters away. As two fireballs emerged from the gun emplacements, two shells were fired directly at the Imperado.

One of the two shells grazed the bridge of the HMS Imperado; had it been a little more accurate, it might have wiped out Grand Admiral Treville and his staff.

Another shell struck the bow of the HMS Imperado.

With a deafening roar, the bow of the Imperator was blown off in large chunk, allowing waves to pour in directly from there.

With its bow gone, the Imperator's speed immediately decreased, and its stability was also significantly reduced due to the waves. However, overall, although the shell damaged the Imperado, it did not cripple it.

However, the Britain warships' main guns were reloading too slowly, and they were facing the enemy bow to bow. Unless they had crossed paths, their aft main guns would also be unable to fire.

However, considering the main gun reloading speed, frankly speaking, by the time everyone passes each other, the forward main guns may not have finished reloading. Originally, Nelson could have used his better turning ability to try to create an angle for the stern guns, but now that the ship is severely damaged, it is difficult to make such a turn.

"Pressure up, increase ventilation, ram it, ram the Imperado!" Nelson finally stopped coughing. He struggled to stay upright and, looking at the battleship Imperator, which was now close at hand, slowed down and became more clumsy due to the loss of its bow, issued this order.